Impoverished Women Find Unlikely Hero in Melinda Gates

Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like.

Email This Story

Send email to this addressEnter Your NameAdd a comment hereVerification

Yes, that Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft creator and billionaire Bill Gates. In the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual letter, Melinda reveals the ugly truth: poverty is sexist. By now, everyone is more than aware of the wage gap – on average, women earn $0.79 for every dollar men earn. But what few people realize is that this pay gap is perpetuated by the fact that women spend more time doing household duties than men.

Melinda writes: “Housework comes first, so girls often fall behind in school. Global statistics show that it’s increasingly girls, not boys, who don’t know how to read. Mothers might say they’d go to the doctor. In poor countries, moms are usually responsible for their kids’ health.” Furthermore, working mothers earn approximately $0.73 for every male-earned dollar, essentially having to pay what some are referring to as a “mommy tax.”

Outside of the workplace, women are also met with unrealistic expectations to keep their households in order, which can deter them professionally. For example, women need to work an extra 155 days to catch up to their male co-workers, which is nearly impossible when also having to balance another “full-time” job – motherhood.

Closing the wage gap isn’t just about providing equal pay for single, white women – it’s imperative for all women, particularly those singlehandedly raising families, since the families are indirectly suffering as well from this sever pay gap. Studies show that equal pay could cut poverty amongst working mothers in the South alone by over half; imagine what that would mean for the rest of the working mothers United States? Since motherhood is a full-time job by itself, shouldn’t we be helping working moms, rather than stacking the odds against them?